LifeSite When the time is right, smaller children can be told something like this.
January 28, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — The “birds and the bees” conversation that parents need to have with their children, in different ways at different times of maturation, will always be something of a challenge. But Christian parents have several things going for them: first, the graces of the state of matrimony, which support them in all that they must do; second, the simple fact that the truth of the matter, as it comes from God’s hand, is already good, fitting, and beautiful, even if it is also marked by the effects of the Fall.
When the time is right, smaller children can be told something like this:
There’s a special kind of hug only for husbands and wives — people God has joined in marriage. They become very close to each other, to show how much they love one another and to tell God that they are open to receiving the gift of a baby from Him, because He wants to give them the amazing gift of another person to love. So sometimes God will put a baby into mommy’s womb as a gift from this special hug. That’s how you came to be here, and your brothers and sisters, too.
Beyond this germinal understanding, it can be helpful for parents to think about and discuss sexuality in terms of three major themes: (1) Adam and Eve, (2) Christ and the Church, (3) the evangelical counsels. I’m certainly not suggesting that all of the following can be presented at once, but over time, these different aspects can be brought out, one by one, as occasion permits.
(1) When the first man was created, he was in a state of original solitude — not isolation, since he was with God, but still without a partner “fit for him,” of his own nature, with whom he could share a human life. Man’s natural “home” is being together with another who completes him as well as other persons who proceed from that union. Home, in fact, is defined by this bond between the first man and the first woman. Fruitfulness is a fundamental natural good that allows the human race to exist; it is also, consequently, a supernatural good, because it allows Christians to build up the Church by adding members to Christ. This fertility of human nature is an expression of a generous and outward-oriented inner life, by which we can take part in the activity of creating that is proper to God.
(2) The ultimate reason the two sexes were created, and the hidden truth that all human couples represent, is the perfect and everlasting union of Christ and the Church (cf. Ephesians 5). In order for God to express His perfect love for mankind, He had to ensure first that there would be a relationship that is comprehensive, self-giving, fruitful, and stable. Once this was in place, He could point us to it and say: “That is how My love is — only better.” Unfortunately, this created foreshadowing of the Incarnation was seriously damaged by sin and continues to be so damaged, yet not so much that the comparison is meaningless to us; otherwise, Our Lord, St. Paul, and St. John would not have been able to use it at all.